Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Cuts Stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. cut its stake in Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO - Free Report) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 165,689 shares of the network equipment provider's stock after selling 5,801 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in Cisco Systems were worth $9,809,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of Cisco Systems by 59.3% during the second quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 775,559 shares of the network equipment provider's stock valued at $36,847,000 after buying an additional 288,775 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in Cisco Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $798,000. HighVista Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Cisco Systems during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,698,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 93,357 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $5,527,000 after purchasing an additional 10,813 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its stake in Cisco Systems by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,658,417 shares of the network equipment provider's stock worth $88,261,000 after purchasing an additional 162,544 shares in the last quarter. 73.33% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Cisco Systems

In related news, CFO Richard Scott Herren sold 86,351 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $4,964,318.99. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 365,314 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,001,901.86. This represents a 19.12 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Charles Robbins sold 171,744 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.49, for a total value of $9,873,562.56. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 783,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $45,059,857.14. This represents a 17.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 353,522 shares of company stock worth $20,349,721 over the last 90 days. 0.01% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CSCO. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Cisco Systems from $55.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Cisco Systems from $76.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on Cisco Systems from $52.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Melius Research upgraded shares of Cisco Systems from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Cisco Systems from $49.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $61.50.

Cisco Systems Trading Up 0.7 %

CSCO traded up $0.41 during trading on Friday, hitting $60.23. 23,800,968 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 17,184,370. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $58.91 and a 200 day moving average of $53.57. Cisco Systems, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.50 and a 12-month high of $60.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $239.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.37 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The network equipment provider reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.87 by $0.04. Cisco Systems had a return on equity of 25.70% and a net margin of 17.73%. The company had revenue of $13.84 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.98 EPS. Cisco Systems's revenue was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Cisco Systems, Inc. will post 2.97 EPS for the current year.

Cisco Systems Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Cisco Systems's payout ratio is 68.67%.

Cisco Systems Company Profile

Cisco Systems, Inc designs, manufactures, and sells Internet Protocol based networking and other products related to the communications and information technology industry in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, Japan, and China. The company also offers switching portfolio encompasses campus switching as well as data center switching; enterprise routing portfolio interconnects public and private wireline and mobile networks, delivering highly secure, and reliable connectivity to campus, data center and branch networks; wireless products include wireless access points and controllers; and compute portfolio including the cisco unified computing system, hyperflex, and software management capabilities, which combine computing, networking, and storage infrastructure management and virtualization.